Time and place of learning will be immaterial: Salman Khan
nThe future of learning, according to Khan Academy’s Salman Khan, will be competency-based learning, where it wouldn’t matter if you have learnt it sitting on a chair or a beach or in your kitchen. Khan, who founded the not-for-profit online learning platform in 2007, said the coronavirus crisis has presented an opportunity to fix the problems brought forth by the tuition industry, which is adding to the financial stress and anxiety of the middle-to low-income families in India. Edited excerpts of an interview:
There are two types of anti-fragility in the edtech space. One is anti-fragility in the organization, and another is anti-fragility in the system as a whole.
When we talk about the system, every school leader around the world recognizes the significance of the continuity in the learning process... We are looking at a new normal which will be more anti-fragile as learning will not be bound by the concept of time and place, allowing students to move nimbly from one place to another.
However, it must be realized that it is not necessary to pay for quality content as resources must be equally accessible by all. So in a country like India, where families spend a third of their income on virtual learning of low quality, it becomes even more important to break this wheel of scepticism that there must be a catch if the course material is free!
One very fascinating aspect I discovered in India was the use of “Hinglish”, so we wasted no time in incorporating this unique language on our platform. The manner in which Indians interface with the devices is different to that of people in the US, so this pushed us to integrate the kind of modalities which would be more aligned to the consumption pattern of online content in India.
India’s large population and the hunger for learning and education ingrained in its culture definitely provides a huge opportunity for the edtech sector… There is also an opportunity to fix the problems brought forth by the tuition industry, which is adding to the financial stress and anxiety of the middle- to low-income families in India.
The more the people innovate in this space, the better. If students are getting value, then nothing could be better.
What would be unfortunate is students not trying out Khan Academy, which is free and is just as good as any other content out there.
When Bill Gates can afford anything and his children are using Khan Academy, then a family with an annual income of $2,000-3,000 investing 10% of their income for their child to learn calculus feels like a lost opportunity.
I think children will be able to learn asynchronously with a blend of physical learning... The future of learning is competency-based learning, where it wouldn’t matter if you have learnt in a chair or on a beach or in your kitchen.
If you have learnt it, show it, we will give you credit for it. While I greatly appreciate what Byju’s and other talented content creators are doing, I would really want to convince them that the future belongs to a model where you can create more impact on everyone.